Topic: Electrum 4.0.2 imported wallet from Bitcoin Core, cannot send BTC cannot get key (Read 475 times)

Yep the issue is, why i couldn't see them on same wallet.dat that was older and synced, but could see them in later one which is basically same wallet. Remains mystery to me. Keys should be same, but this is not related to electrum.
No i don't use private node or local one. My wife is able to use sign and broadcast fuctions on Electrum, i cannot. Something was definitely screwed up in my electrum wallet. Probably it was bugged from long time ago when i created it. But in end of 2019 i think it was already 3.3.8 so shouldn't have happened. Well hope it's a single case like this. As i was not able to find anyone with same issue yet. However for now i will stick with Core. Better wait 2 hour to sync than lose everything because of bug.

Electrum, by default, connects to public servers which will not be affected by your Bitcoin Core node. So, whether or not your Bitcoin Core was synced should not make any difference... unless you are connecting your Electrum to your own private Electrum Server (like ElectrumX, electrs or Electrum Personal Server) which is connected to your Bitcoin Core node.

Are you running a private Electrum Server?

Basically, if the private keys in Electrum are the same as the ones in Bitcoin Core and have been imported as the appropriate script type so that the addresses holding coins in Bitcoin Core are the ones being displayed in Electrum... Then everything should work.


It does... The command is dumpwallet

It will allow you to dump ALL the private keys contained in the wallet.dat (including ones in the keypool which are not displayed in the "receiving addresses" list)


That's not how it works... The two wallets, while containing the same keys/addresses, still operate independently of each other.

For instance, it's possible to export a single key out of Bitcoin Core and put that into Electrum, but still have other keys in Bitcoin Core that aren't in Electrum... And vice versa, you could have keys in Electrum that are not in Bitcoin Core.

However, for any private key/address pairs that are in both wallets you should see all the same transactions for those addresses (assuming both wallets are properly synced and up to date).

Electrum was fine, except that it couldn't send anything out and bugged export keys commands in console and gui. Electrum seems like was unable to find/link this keys to private keys until i synced the actual latest core wallet to blockchain. Wish i knew what the issue was exactly. Just magic no logic.

At a time i made it, i imported all keys found in Core which was 3. Later i dug out more but this is not releavant to the problem. Multiple addresses in amount of more than 100, was derived from this keys and some unknown keys to me looks like. As Newly created Electrum with same addresses do not show any new transactions. So, it looks like, there is keys that Bitcoin Core did not show, even tho they are there. Since Core has no command to Display all priv keys.

Wallet.dat is for the core, i was unable to see transactions made in Electrum on old wallet.dat in Bitcoin core. So when i made backup i thought all Wallet.dat files supposed to be same, with 1 master key. Obviously i was wrong. It missed something, that did not allow me to see transfers. When i put latest version of it i was able to see them.

If you don't understand you just cannot, took me 3 days of trying everything anyway to fix this.
If you didn't read about it before, if you import keys to Electrum both Core and electrum becomes 1 wallet basically. Anyway i will delete all this old stuff and make fresh ones. To avoid such a clutter of old stuff.

Which wallet.dat are you talking about? Wallet files for Electrum? or actual wallet.dat files for Core?

I'm still very confused as to what the actual issue was here... because now you're talking about "hidden" master/private keys?

Can you just answer one thing for me... when you imported your "5 keys"... how many addresses were showing in the Electrum "Addresses" tab?

As i suspected after 3 days of trying. Issue was in old wallet.dat file. It didn't have some hidden new master keys or private keys. The amount of displayed addresses didn't change. But after i used latest wallet.dat all transactions showed and funds was taken out swiftly because now i need new wallet due to, to many manipulations trying to fix it.
Problem is Electrum picked up that new hiden addresses and send funds to them. And i still cannot see any new addresses or keys in my Core. They came in as brand new addresses i never seen before. But non the less it was received.
Also another issue that stands, is electrum Crashing when trying to display private keys from imported wallets as well as from GUI or Console after updating to 4.0.2, alltogether or single. Also forever disabled buttons to sign or broadcast. Unable to send funds through console. Seems it cannot connect to servers well enough to process transaction. I would recommend for people using Electrum to switch to core. To many bugs in Electrum. So much again for Newbie friendly easy wallet Well i am happy now finally i can sleep well.

I have no idea how 2 addresses worked and rest didn't actually the strangest thing this was not the first transactions that worked, it's more like in the middle of them. Earliest ones are lost and the latest ones too. Guess i was just if you can say "lucky" to hit the addresses assigned to correct keys with 2 transactions. And one which is real strange, has been imported as watch only from Private key, i don't know how it's possible even. Wallet structure is identical to normal newly created wallet that has no different addresses than imported. It did not have a chance to generate wrong addresses yet.

Now only chance i might have is old Wallet files for Electrum, that by some reason i cannot open because of wrong password, which i am sure is right i never had other one. Have 2 versions at least older and newer one. But i cannot open them, unless i get AES decryption key which is my password...

Still same result, that addresses that was caught up from Electrum is there, but rest is still missing.
Electrum just bloated out bunch of keys that has no connection with Private keys given and didn't attach any keys to this addresses... Basically lost shitton of money to the air. I guess best idea would to be patient and never stop using Bitcoin Core. As this is not hack or anything, this is loss because of the Electrum numerious bugs and this is not the 1st one that made people lose access to funds. Old wallets unaccessible now because of password corruption, no way to recover data for imported wallet, new 4.0.2 Elecrtum cannot broadcast or send funds actually, even through console. When password enters sometiems the error comes out that it has 4 symbols instead of something until its restarted. To many bugs... Their own wallet is cool and all if you make new one, but it should not make people lose money because there is such function to import, that does not work as intended should disable it and not let people lose their stuff. Not the first corrupted wallet issue.

Basically i tried everything i could try nothing worked. Now i am just trying all backups from Wallet.dat, but i am pretty sure its waste of time. As i never had such keys as Electrum assigned addresses to.

Could this happen if i used older version of Wallet.dat and there is later one available with possible more addresses ? Damn core is scanning blockchain again, which takes ages so i cannot check that option.

Bitcoin core will only change the master key if you encrypt a non-encrypted wallet.
It wont if you've just changed the passphrase.

Even tho i am already tired as hell of trying all options possible (so much for newbie friendly software with no recover options in case of imported corrupted wallets)...
I will try to explain how i got part of transactions.

Wallet was created by importing keys from core pretty straightforward.
Then after i couldnt transfer funds and couldn't see them on other Electrum wallet, which is strange since i used same private keys. All this transactions even the ones i see on core now, didn't show in new imported wallet.
I took the priv keys from electrum back to Bitcoin core and was able to see 2 addresses transactions out of 13.... now go figure what the hell happened. That means that part of addresses generated from electrum belonged to old private keys but most belonged to new ones that Electrum didn't register in Wallet file... That probably also means that there is different master keys for that Bitcoin core wallet in case of Passphrase change? I don't think i changed passphrase however. Now i am trying to get old priv key if any different from older wallet.dat file. but i think i already did that and nothing happened.

Yes basic structure of file looks fine, i can see it and open it without encryption.

I received transactions on core from 2 addresses. 1 showing as Watch only and rest didn't show on core.

Me too... I'm still struggling with the "OP imported 5 keys, ended up with a wallet with 10s/100s of addresses" part.

In all honesty, it sounds like the wallet file is corrupted (KeyError crashes, inability to send funds or see private keys etc), and the OP has unfortunately sent coins to addresses that are stored in the wallet file but the private keys for these addresses are not or the private keys are corrupted

In my opinion, it is going to be very hard to troubleshoot and/or say definitively what the actual problem is without someone with the technical knowledge taking a look at the wallet file... maybe a screen show with the "secret" stuff redacted?

@Lexx2k... Is your wallet file password protected and/or fully encrypted? Or are you able to view the basic structure of the wallet file in a text editor?

Does your Bitcoin core's wallet.dat contains the prv keys of your funded addresses in Electrum?
If you have imported random keys from Electrum, then it shouldn't work unless you're lucky to pick the right ones.
If those funded addresses' keys are the ones affected by the corruption, then there's nothing else you can do with that corrupted wallet file.

The other option is to look for the original wallet.dat from Bitcoin core where those prv keys were extracted from, you can import that back to Bitcoin core instead.
Aside from that, I'm out of ideas.

Basically downloaded Blockchain for Core past the date of transaction, i cannot see it. It is really that problem with corrupt wallets. Except i don't remember creating any standard wallet prior to making imported one. So who the hell knows how to get funds out of this damn electrum now.
Does anyone have any idae or suggestions on what to do? Since it's not hacked and not stolen, it's obviously a bug Electrum to blame for... But what do i do now? I will be really lucky if i find something like passphrase writen somewhere. But how could i get this issue if i didn't make Standard wallet that has passphrase?

I found deleted Default wallet on one of the shadow discs and recovered it, however none of my passwords match. Could that be the answer. It was created in March, i don't remember deleting or creating any wallets in march. So i have the wallet now. Now i need to figure how to brute force it... Obviously i would remember my passwords.

It's 100% not watch only.

Drive is normal hard drive which is slow but very stable model. I might of generated Standard wallet previously. But not one after another very fast. It says imported wallet, not watch only or standard.

Besides my was created on 3.3.8 they added checks to prevent this i beleive. And i do not have seed i tried to retreive it, if it was due to that situation i supposed to have seed in my wallet, or master key. I don't have either.

It might look like my issue, however i do not think i created standard wallet prior to making Imported one, even if i did i never cared to write seed phrase down. How does one know this kind of issue even can occur. I might of wirtten it down, but i doubt i can find it anymore anyway, since i never used that wallet, even if it was ever made actually.

i should have included a link to the relevant github issue. the wallet file corruption bug results in wallets displaying addresses from a different seed/wallet. it requires you to have generated more than one wallet in a session and for you to have a dodgy drive. for example USB drives are disproportionately effected.



https://github.com/spesmilo/electrum/issues/5082

another possibility is that you simply have a watch only wallet. in that case it should say watch only in the title bar and under wallet > information.

Small update.

It seems like i seen payment requests arriving to my Bitcoin Core wallet, so it seems like that is why i am unable to sign transactions through Electrum. I am being asked to sign it in Bitcoin core? That payment request was added on Electrum but looks like they show in Bitcoin core. So it might be a good sign. I read somewhere that problem with importing keys from Bitcoin core is that you still need it and full blockchain to sign transactions. Maybe i read something wrong however.

The problem is as mentioned above. I have only select private keys, the Addresses that Electrum made from who knows where, i cannot get private keys for them due to KeyError in right clicl drop out and in console. So i am either arleady screwed by Electrum, that it bugged and failed to save Private keys for my received transaction, or this new addresses belong to same Private keys, but i cannot see them in new Electrum wallet. So basically its a limbo. Now i am waiting to see if Bitcoin Core will show this. But i kind of really doubt that. It seems like either when i update Electrum or even long before that it was already bugged. Doesn't answer the main problem however, how to get my funds out of Electrum now... As i do not have private keys for receive transaction made in Electrum. I also checked wallet itself, it has only addresses i imported. So if i reach the Blockchain sync date that i received 1st payment to my side and i cannot see it. I have no idea what to do.

Is Addresses and Private keys created by electrum stored in Wallet? Or they are stored in some library or decrypted inside some file? Because if it's the wallet, only one that hold information i probably won't ever get them out, as keys is not there. Seems like older version, started generating new addresses for me, on imported wallet before. And of course since there is no new keys for imported wallet, probably new version just deleted them when converting, or they was never actually stored because of the same bug.

there was a wallet file corruption bug in previous versions. you may have been hit by that. i suggest starting over on a fresh PC. leave your current system untouched for reference purposes. restore from the private keys corresponding to addresses with unspent outputs (coins).

I found old wallet installation file, it's downloaded 01.08.2019 and it definitely legit signed installation of Electrum. So it's not possible i got bad version that was fake or hacked.
Now the question is what happened and how. With mostly offline disconnected from internet PC.

Well i geuss seing funds doesnt mean they belong to me, only way i see this happen if there was planted in some way addresses or copy of Electrum that looked like electrum that generated someone elses addresses.
I did import same keys before to new electrum wallet and of course i cannot see any of that transactions. However as i mentioned before even new wallet unable to send transactions sign and boradcast are still disabled. Could that be because of the Bitcoin Block chain not fininshed downloading and i need to sign them from Bitcoin core? Or provide some confirmation on core itself. Don't know how this electrum works, if i cannot even send 100% funds that i own and can send from Core.

I already did extract Private keys from that wallet, they are not different from ones that i put in there before wit hexception, which is strange about 2 or 3 additional private keys i got when i returned keys to Bitcoin Core, one of them i cannot even get priv key from in my own wallet after import. I compared new wallet and old one, they are identical structure and code wise. I tried to manually reverse to 3.3.8 but it just aint working, guess the structure was not same, even tho it looks so similar after all it's just strings with info. Still waiting on Core to download blockchain. It's really not possible that my ancient 2 cents (over limit of minimal transaction) from new wallet also cannot sign and transfer. Even if problem was with connection i tried VPN result is same, sign and submit buttons are disabled.

I don't think imported wallet has master key, well even if it does i cannot extract it from Electrum i get error, i would try to punch it to Core. I guess it doesnt even have one as it's imported.

If i try to get key for most of addresses i get this
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "electrum\commands.py", line 188, in _run
  File "concurrent\futures\_base.py", line 435, in result
  File "concurrent\futures\_base.py", line 384, in __get_result
  File "electrum\commands.py", line 151, in func_wrapper
  File "electrum\commands.py", line 443, in getprivatekeys
  File "electrum\wallet.py", line 531, in export_private_key
  File "electrum\keystore.py", line 253, in get_private_key
  File "electrum\json_db.py", line 44, in wrapper
  File "electrum\json_db.py", line 129, in __getitem__
KeyError: 'various public keys'

If i try to get master key just says there is no such string as master key.

Seems like you're not the only one who's getting that "Key Error" message;
This "send Crash Report" issue suspiciously looks like the same as yours: https://github.com/spesmilo/electrum/issues/6394

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Try to find the private key from the wallet file itself, but that requires you to unencrypt the wallet.

First, disconnect from the internet or use an air-gap machine (do not share any "private" info):

• 1. Remove the password of your wallet in 'Wallet->Password' type your password and leave the new/confirm password fields empty.
• 2. Then find your wallet file in the Electrum data directory/wallets (or where your wallet is stored), and open it using a text editor.
• 3. Lastly, find "keystore" and below it, there should be "keypairs" where you can find the address after its private key.

If you found seed and master keys along with your imported addresses, there's really something wrong with your wallet file.

Have you also considered post #5?

The Funds still show available in full in my wallet, Electrum 4.0.2 which i got 100% from official download source. Nothing was ever spent from this wallet. All the receive addresses are still there in the wallet, the addresses that funds was received. None of it is spent. Neither can i sign any transaction to send them out. Either someone who was stealing them this way screwed up an i ended up with locked coins forever, or old Electrum version had serious bug where it created new addresses without seed for imported wallets.  Did old Electrum had option to import private keys to standard wallet? If so i might just imported keys on top of it and forgot that i had Seedpharse... But i doubt it's possible that i had standard wallet it says imported. Everytime i just used generated address by electrum before, from receive window. Had no idea they had to match exactly addresses for each given key in core...
I guess i see the funds because the addresses to receive and transactions is in the wallet but i don't have and cannot get keys for them, so if it's swapped addresses by someone else they also probably don't have that info anymore as they got what they want and deleted the evidence. Probably ended up with locked up funds forever to look at.

I cannot spent old funds either from Core that i am 100% sure i will see synced after core updated as i already see those. Even cannot sign transactions using this funds from electrum. So something is obviously screwed.

As for above how to import keys, i did that same way import only my keys. I also cannot understand why and how i got so many addresses in my wallet. Wallet was obviously created new a while ago and mostly stayed offline. In the end of 2019, i am not sure if that fake server attacks still existed.

If you have different addresses 1,3 and bc1 I think much better to wait for Bitcoin core to be fully synced. After the Bitcoin core is completely synced, you can check what addresses have balance. Then, you can dump the private key using this command below.


After exporting the private key, use that private key to import on the latest Electrum wallet you installed recently.


Electrum only generates tons of addresses if you created a new wallet with seed phrase, but since you are going to import a private key like the above said, you should only get one BTC address for one private key.

You can follow the right way how to import the private key to Electrum from here https://bitcoinelectrum.com/importing-your-private-keys-into-electrum/

Sample.

For P2SH-P2WPKH addresses add p2wpkh-p2sh: at the first before the private key.
as sample below

This should generate a p2wpkh-p2sh bitcoin address.

For P2WPKH addresses or called Bech32, starting with bc1
Add "p2wpkh:" at first before text before the private key.

Sample:

And then for P2PKH starting with 1
Add p2pkh: at the first before the private key.

Sample:


Hope this helps...

If you only imported 5 keys, then you should only have 5 addresses in Electrum. If you have more than this, then it sounds like your wallet file might be corrupt?

Which addresses did you send the funds to? Do you still have these addresses in your Bitcoin Core?

Bitcoin Core Some start with 1, some with 3 and some with bc1.
I guess i only imported ones that start with 1.
The electrum ones all start with 1

Basically original imported addresses in Core all started with 1, 5 keys, i imported them to electrum. Today i grabbed keys i could find in Electrum wallet file and imported them back to Core, that come out as 3's and bc1's.

From what i understand Electrum generated tonns of Legacy addresses from imported keys. They all start with 1.

What i mean by completely not same is - the new Wallet, when you import use exactly same address to recieve payment as on bitcoin core. The old wallet use address that is completely different but starts with 1 still. And that addresses public key is not same and cannot be checked from check private key. If Bitcoin core addresses start usual from 1 and have some letters, most of the Electrum addresses i got start from 129 - 126 - 114 etc in the begining of address

Electrum doesn't generate anything if you are importing private keys. When you say they look "completely not same" can you please provide specific examples? Does Bitcoin Core look like "bc1xxx..." etc... and the ones in Electrum look like "1xxx..." That is to say, the Bitcoin core ones start with "bc1" and Electrum starts with "1"?


It honestly sounds like you have downloaded a fake version of Electrum or something... but the fact that the funds are still showing as "unspent" also indicates that they haven't been "stolen"

yes... depending on how you import the private keys... If you just import the "WIF" key that was exported from Bitcoin Core, Electrum will default to "P2PKH"... which generates legacy addresses that start with a "1".

As per the Electrum import info prompt:

So... did your addresses in Bitcoin Core start with a "1", "3" or "bc1"?

The new wallet i made only uses imported private keys addresses. But old version of Electrum seems like generated fake ones to receive that dont belong to me. Or at least somehow they look completely not same as on Bitcoin core.


Could it be that someone has planted a lot of fake addresses to my Electrum, so the generated addresses do not belong to private keys? Can the Bitcoin Core public key be different for same wallet's different private keys?
The strange thing is there is like a 100 of receiving addresses a lot of them with 0 transactions. Obviously i do not have so many private keys for so many addresses. All the transactions received is unspent, so i doubt it was stolen. But the problem is i cannot get private keys from any than 5 i originally imported. I tried to find anything about this kind of attack or hack in the past on electrum, but it just doesn't match.

Basically Electrum generated bitcoin receive addresses previously that obviously do not look like Bitcoin Core addresses keys i imported. And no one had access to PC except me, it was offline most of the time. Hard disconnected internet and no wifi cards on it. It just looks like it made up random addresses for receiving with different public keys.

Can you check the Electrum if you have the same address after you import the private keys. If it shows the same address after you import maybe the latest version of Electrum is not online or not connected to the internet.

Check the circle at the bottom right if it shows the same as this image below.



If not click that and try to find other servers or if it set to manual try to check "select server automatically" then test it again.

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Can you paste the address here from the old Electrum? So that we can check if the balance still there

Just as update, importing private keys to fresh Electrum wallet does not show funds received by electrum.

But in old electrum wallet they show and show as confirmed and available...

Really not sure what is going on, only can tell after another 150gb download of blockchain.

The problem is not funds in core that i had there before i imported. But funds that i received on that electrum wallet after importing. Since addresses was generated by electrum.

I am going to slice both new created and old wallets open and see the difference in versions, probably can hand fix it. of course i will experiment only on backups.

if you have the private keys in bitcoin core you can just use that. or you can create a new electrum wallet with those keys:

https://bitcoinelectrum.com/importing-your-private-keys-into-electrum/

I think the funds should be in core when it syncs.

Electrum won't make any new addresses once you've imported your own afaik. There mightve been a mixup with address types or something.

The keys are compatible and if the wallet isn't encrypted then, unless the file has become corrupted, your keys should be in plain text in there...

Unfortunately, wallets is not backward compatible.
If i used wallet in 4.0.2 it cannot be used on older version anymore... Thats the main problem. I imported wallets on version who knows how old, almost a year ago, probably 3.3.6

So basically i should be able to see transactions on the original Bitcoin core wallet for received coins through Electrum with imported keys wallet? I am still trying to finish downloading the whole blockchain.
If so i can stop freaking out.

No. If you indeed imported a list of private keys Electrum will (should) not create new addresses, it will use only the addresses for which you have the private keys.
Also you didn't receive any coins into the wallet. The wallet - any wallet - doesn't hold coins, only handle private keys (or addresses if watch-only imported, but you said it's not the case). You've just seen the coins from the "network", coins sent to some of the addresses the wallet is looking after.

I've tried your story on testnet with Electrum 4.0.1 - imported a private key to a new wallet and made a transaction from the new wallet. It went beautifully.
I don't know what the problem can be at your side. I feel that something strange may have happened with your wallet file, or maybe you did sweep a wallet instead of importing, which is something else, ...

What I can suggest as a lucky guess, clearly backup the wallet file (probably called default_wallet) , copy it separately and try multiple older Electrum versions (maybe portable) 4.0.1, 3.3.8, maybe one would handle it better.

Edit: forgot the link for older versions: https://download.electrum.org/

Hello everyone.

I managed to get seems like unseen before issue in my Electrum wallet.

Originally wallet was made by importing keys from Bitcoin core, exactly keys not watch only Addresses. I received some coins to that Electrum wallet. Which i suppose created a new addreses and public keys, or just addresses derived from electrum everytime i generated new address. I suppose watch only cannot generate those and has a warning everytime software is launched.
So there is no Seed phrases, or any other ways to recover except send funds out, or get private keys.
The biggest problem is, when i try to send BTC to someone else, sign and broadcast buttons are both greyed out, so i cannot send BTC. Since i cannot sign or confirm it. Console payto gives me bunch of gibberish numbers, i suppose encrypted transaction info and it seems like it's not going trough also.
 I tried to export private keys, and i get Electrum crashing with bug report KeyError. Also when i try to recover Private key for each specific address i got paid to, i get key error showing my public key from console. Basically i am stuck in a dead circle of being unable to do anything with my funds.
I didn't back up older version wallet as i didn't expect to have this issue with electrum. I can see my funds, receive BTC and import keys, but there is no way i can get my funds out of Electrum at the moment. Currently i have version 4.0.2. Also i trie dto create new wallet to test, from that wallet i can export keys and see private keys.
I know the problem is easily solved if i had Electrum standart wallet. But mine happened to be imported. Is there any way to dig out private keys and export them to core, except the console and gui functions? I tried Windows and Apple machines always get same error and unable to get private keys.

I dug out some keys from wallet itself when its unpassworded and imported them to Bitcoin core. But i doubt that keys was used for transactions.

Another question is, since i made this wallet using Bitcoin core private keys, will i be able to see coins received from electrum new addresses generated?

Thanks to everyone for input i really have run out of ides of what to do.